Born in Tel Aviv in 1924, Pnina Salzman began playing piano soon after she learned to walk, and began performing in public at eight. Alfred Cortot, while on tour in Israel in 1932, heard her and invited her to study in Paris under his personal supervision. In Paris, Pnina Salzman studied with Magda Tagliaffero at the Conservatoire National de Musique, where she won the Prix de Piano at age fourteen. About the same time, Bronislav Huberman (the famous violinist & founder of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), who attended one of her concerts in Paris, announced that it was a once in a lifetime experience to meet such talent, and recommended that she be engaged as a soloist with the IPO.